User blog:RoyboyX/Metroid: Zero Mission: The Novel
My fourth novel, based on Samus' most famous mission. Prologue In the year 2000 of the Cosmic calendar, many planets formed a government known as the Galactic Federation. Thanks to the cooperation of the planets and many of the galactic communities, intergalactic peace occurred and caravans ferried back and forth between locations. Many planets are unknown, and are a cause of alarm to the Federation. One such planet was named SR388, located in a remote part of space not found on many galactic charts. The Space Research Vessel Marina arrived there to explore it, and discovered a dangerous life-form that was capable of draining life energy from any organisms it attached to. Its name was Metroid. They had captured a specimen and were returning to Galactic Federation Headquarters on Earth. However, fate struck them. Space Pirates, alien criminals around since the early days of the Federation, attacked and destroyed the ship, seizing the Metroid and bringing it with them to Zebes, their stronghold planet. The Pirates discovered a method of cloning the Metroid. By being exposed to beta rays, they multiply within 24 hours. The Federation had established a police force, and tried many times to take the planet, but failed. It appeared that the galaxy was doomed. They then called together warriors known for their great power and strength. These were bounty hunters. I am one of them. My name is Samus Aran, and I am the most famous of them all. I have completed many missions deemed impossible. My identity is often shrowded in mystery, and people often mistake me for a male cyborg, or a robot. This was because I had an advanced Power Suit feared by everyone, even the Pirates. Due to my experience, I was given a special order: *Destroy the parasitic life form, Metroid, *And defeat the supercomputer, Mother Brain. I accepted and quickly landed on Zebes. Chapter 1: Planetfall Planet Zebes...I called this place home once, in peaceful times, long before evil haunted the caverns below. Now, I shall finally tell the tale of my first battle here.... My so-called Zero Mission. I entered Brinstar, the familiar blue-rock caverns reminding me of home. But this wasn't the Zebes I grew up on. It was infested with monsters, vermin called Geemers. I cleared them out of the way, finding the Morph Ball, a convenient upgrade that allowed me through small passages. I explored, and found a Chozo Statue standing up. Its hands were glowing. I morphed in its hands, and it charged my suit. All damage that was taken from the enemies encountered here was healed, and my map had a glowing location on it. The Chozo Statue sat down and closed its eye, but I knew that it wasn't done uses yet. After climbing a very tall shaft, I found the area the statue had pointed out. There was another statue, sitting and in its hands an Item Sphere. I shot at it to see my prize, which was the Long Beam. It permanently integrated with my Normal Beam, allowing it to shoot a greater distance. Returning to the shaft, I climbed up more of it and eventually found my way to a cavernous room, overgrown with plants. In front of me were two statues depicting heads. They were representing Space Pirate commanders. It depicted my arch-nemesis, Ridley, and some other beast. I tried everything, but they wouldn't budge. I left, frustrated, and all the doors locked. As I kept moving on, a purple and pink creature, a Dessgeega, ambushed me. I killed it, and the doors opened again. Beyond was a statue that showed me another location in Brinstar that was farther off. As I was just about to leave, the statue actually spoke. "You are brave to dare coming here, Samus Aran. If you wish to invade the Pirate base, you must defeat the gargantuan leaders of the Space Pirates, Ridley and Kraid. The Chozo wish you good luck." Chapter 2: Upgrading I found a hidden passage in one of the walls of the earlier shaft, and then found myself in another shaft. Across from me was a red-colored door that could only be opened by Missiles, something I didn't have. I kept moving and then fell to the bottom, where there was a door to another hallway. The ground started to rumble violently, but nothing else happened. Across from here was a lake of acid, with pillars over top of it. This pillar had just what I needed, a Missile. This wasn't the upgrade the statue pointed out, because it wasn't in another's hands. As I was returning to the door, the rumbling started again. As soon as I was nearly out, a large, purple centipede-like creature ambushed. Deorem. This wasn't part of Zebes' natural ecosystem, it was a life-form artificially created by the Mother Brain. It was so long that it sealed me inside a small space, before its head came above me and opened its eye. I tried firing a Missile, it worked. I did this two more times before it exploded and left behind another upgrade floating in the air. The Charge Beam. Now my Normal Beam wasn't so useless. I returned to the massive shaft to explore more of Brinstar. It opened up into a series of darker-blue rock caverns. I then found another shaft, not quite as big. At the bottom was the door to a Map Station, so I downloaded the map and saw the area laid out for me. I also saw the pathway to the point of interest. It was, like, near at the top of the shaft, so I went up there and found a small Morph Ball tunnel that took me to another statue room. The item in its hand was the Bomb, so I could now lay them in Morph Ball form. As I was leaving, the doors locked. I was looking around, trying to find what would open them. I tried laying many bombs. There was an explosion, then I felt my energy being sucked away. I unmorphed and found tiny little purple insects called Brugs that were sapping my energy away. A tiny wall of blocks had formerly been there, and my bombs must have destroyed it. The bombs also killed the Brugs, opening the doors and letting me out. After some exploring, I found another statue that lead me into the depths of Norfair, in Zebes' mantle. I hoped I would be able to survive. The path to Norfair was the room where I'd fought the Deorem, so I returned there and rode down the elevator. For some reason, during the entire ride, I felt as if I was being watched. Chapter 3: Preperation I had only been to Norfair once, when I was so cold I needed to take in the region's extreme heat. I was torn between checking out the door to the left and to the right. I picked left, most likely out of intuition, and it was the better choice. I found myself on the surface of the planet, Crateria. Dark, water-filled caves opened up into a land of weed and blue sky. These and many more sights. I took them all in as I ran into the next room, which had the ruins of a wrecked vessel nearby, and a lake full of Skultera, aggressive fish. I found a passage upward that lead to an outdoor area, the Chozo Ruins. Parts of the cavern entrance that suffered much natural erosion crumbled away by the force of my bombs, uncovering a secret cave. Filled with water and a Chozo Statue with a more ancient texture, it held a stone item. I collected it, but my suit analyzed that it was uncompatible. Damn. Whatever it was, I hoped I would find some use for it. Disappointed, I moved on until I came to a floor that crumbled out from under me. I fell into a large chamber, observing a Chozo Statue at the bottom. The wall appeared to be erosed; this lead me into another small chamber, with a statue in the foreground. In its hand was a new item, the Power Grip. Normally, me in my suit was too heavy to grab a ledge, but now, a surge of power would be channeled through my suit to make me lighter weight and less bulky, but still not as great as without my suit. I kept going, before I felt my feet lift off the ground. I had entered the landing site from a high up ledge, and was dropping to my ship. I landed swiftly on the top hatch and entered to restore my energy and take a breather. After I was done I headed for the point of interest, at last. Returning to Norfair, I fought through a large shaft with many obstructions until I got my new prize, the Ice Beam. There was a hidden passage under the statue's platform that eventually brought me to another standing statue. It lead to the room after the starting point in Brinstar, and then down. The statue left me another message: "You are brave to be willing to defeat Kraid and Ridley, the gargantuan Space Pirates. You should upgrade before you confront them. The next upgrade is within Kraid's Lair. The Chozo wish you good luck." Chapter 4: Kraid I left Norfair and then headed off for Kraid. I soon found that his lair was a complex maze of tunnels that tried to fool me into thinking Kraid was this way, that way and so on. I found the map at the bottom of the massive shaft, and it confirmed Kraid's location, but wouldn't show the path to it. I had to figure it out on my own. I found a range of inactive zip lines, and couldn't figure out how to reactivate them, if they could be reactivated. Ultimately though, I came to a generator and the doors locked. In the generator was a small enclosure that looked like my Morph Ball would fit. I tried it, it worked. The zip lines were operational again. I then found myself in a purple room filled with acid that appeared to be some sort of arena. The doors even locked, so I knew something was going on. As I explored further, I barely noticed a large acid worm with a huge mouth launching itself out at me. I tried out a tactic: every so often, it would try to launch itself at me and slam itself into the platforms. I jumped and used the zip line to get over it, and while it tried to break itself free, I slammed all my ballistics into the creature's red core. It sank into its yellow bath, taking that with it. More strangeness came in the form of blocks depicting some sort of sphere with two triangles. There was a door in front of me, but when I tried opening it I found the rest of the room blocked off by more blocks. In the previous chamber, I found erosion in one part of the ceiling, and found an alternate entrance into the room. Another one of the jagged statues was there, with an upgrade identical to the engraving on those blocks. It was another dud item, but it did lift the indestructibility of the blocks. I was very close to Kraid. Just before I entered his chamber, a weird sight presented itself to me. It was a creature, an eyeball, covering the door and preventing me from cooking Kraid's whatever-he-was hide. Its open pupil was vulnerable to Missiles, and I took it down quick. As I stepped into Kraid's abode... I saw Godzilla before me. Kraid was a large, dinosaur-like beast with three red eyes, a horn, large, nailed arms, a scaly body, a stomach with holes in it and a tail. It roared, so I responded by shooting. Kraid reacted at the Missile I fed him, apparently he had weak tissue in his mouth. I smiled as I let loose my volley of Missiles every time I blasted at his eyes. He didn't slack off, however. Eventually, he put his holes to use as he fired what appeared to be spike-like knives straight at me. They cut through the wall I stood on, and stayed hooked in the wall before exploding. He forgot to destroy one piece that was still floating in midair, so I now had a new part added to the tactic. Eventually, he changed from green to yellow to bright red, before he started to sink into the ground, roaring as he went, then exploding. I was then presented with a vision of the statues of Kraid and Ridley back in Brinstar. The eye on Kraid's lit up, becoming a bright red. The statue that first spoke to me spoke again. "Well done, warrior Samus Aran. You have succeeded where others have failed. The beast Kraid is felled, but one other obstacle to your invasion of the Space Pirate stronghold remains. It is Ridley. You must be strong if you want to defeat him. You must be calm and precise." As I walked into the chamber behind Kraid's lifeless remains, I took time to reflect on the statue's words. I needed to fight Ridley. I also needed to confront my parents' killing and avenge them. My reward was the Speed Booster. I used it to quickly escape Kraid's sector. Chapter 5: Preperation #2 As I reached Brinstar, the wall to my left crumbled and revealed a secret passage. Another helping statue that lead me into Norfair again. I explored lower parts of the bubble shaft in Norfair, where the item lay. The High Jump Boots were there, so I could now jump even higher. I found a Chozo Statue nearby in a fairy tall room that lead me back into Brinstar, in another area on the east side. When I got back there, some new growths holding up balls of juice had formed to block my paths. I then found a room with a Waver and an erosed ceiling. Getting up was frustrating. I found more of the obstacles over top a pool of acid, along with a cluster of Brugs. They attached to me and began sucking the life out of me. I began frantically punching the obstacles, but they weren't taking any sort of damage. But... The Brug had slipped off my arm and went onto the obstacle. More followed, and soon I wasn't their meal. They snacked on the obstacles, allowing me to quickly escape before they turned on me. The Chozo's room had the Varia Suit. It left me a message as I was about to leave: "I would like to say again that you have done well, Samus Aran. You will find that these messages were recorded by me, Grey Voice. Before my death. I have left messages in every new statue and will guide you along the way. I now bestow you with the Chozo's greatest creation, the Varia Suit." My armor was turned orange and gained another layer, and was now resistant to extreme heat, acid and probably even those Brugs. As I left the room, my speculation was correct. I swam in the sea of acid over to the ledge and climbed out. Another acid lake with more Brug-vulnerable obstacles lead me to the next statue. I just can't keep out of Norfair, I thought as the statue pointed me once again to the planet's mantle. After some exploration, I found that it was the Wave Beam, so I could now penetrate walls. As I kept going, I unexpectedly stumbled upon a small enclosed chamber that I was locked into. Above me was a huge worm creature, a Kiru Giru. Underneath it was a bigger chamber, so I shot up to get it in its core. I kept going and then there was another, blocking the rest of a hallway. Its husk was there, shedded. It charged at me, obviously angry. After carefully driving it back, it charged again. I had an idea; laying bombs in its path to get under it and blow up at the right time. My tactic was effective. While I had been moving through a rather overgrown with vegetation part of Norfair (strange for being the planet's mantle), I had begun to notice Gerutas, Norfairian predators, being attacked by plant-like vines in the ground and ceilings. They appeared to be draining the Gerutas of their blood, similar to a Metroid. I hadn't thought much about them, however. That was when I found myself in a pool of water, with yet another Kiru Giru above me, white in color. It was hanging off the ceiling and releasing spores. Several of the vines appeared to be draining it. It was being killed, and I knew I had to help it. I utilized the power of a winged Ripper that was floating about and minding its own business, and I eventually knocked it loose. Its color returned and it crashed into the ground, seemingly coming back to life. I examined it for a few minutes before I moved on. I had just entered the lair of my nemesis, Ridley, but I wasn't able to get very far without the weapon needed to break down green doors. I went back up to Norfair and saw the Kiru Giru had burrowed out. I followed it into a large chamber with lots of eggs. I accidentally landed on one, and then accidentally trampled on the rest. Then, a huge wasp came charging in. I targeted its stinger to send it crashing into the wall and giving me the Super Missiles, the weapon I needed. I then did much more exploring, finding the map room, where I found Ridley's exact location and prepared to confront him, sort of seizing up inside but knowing I had to do it. I came into his room and waited for a while. Apparently he hadn't yet arrived. The doors also hadn't locked. I explored the chamber behind and there was yet another one of the dud item statues. And it had yet another dud item, but the statue was still useful for restoring my ammo in case Ridley decided to show up again. As I left, the doors locked, and there, charging at me, was Ridley. Chapter 6: Ridley I looked up at him. I'd vowed not to panic when I saw him, and I knew I'd failed. Within a moment I was in his grasp, energy deteriorating rapidly. I broke loose and fired a volley of Missiles after his fireballs. I took him down very quickly, much quicker than Kraid. I was then presented with a vision of Grey Voice the statue. Ridley's eye opened on the statues, and Grey Voice spoke. "Well done, young Samus. You have even triumphed over your feared nemesis, and are now able to face Mother Brain and the Metroids. I wish you greatest luck. You musn't give up now." I didn't know how I'd found the will to defeat Ridley that easily. Maybe it was vengeance, or an extreme adrenaline rush. Whatever it was, my nemesis had fallen before me. A gigantic beast, fallen before a puny thing such as me. Chapter 7: Mother Brain I left Ridley's lair pretty quickly. I wasn't willing to stay in his magma hole, and wanted to just settle the score with Mother Brain and the Metroids. I made my way to the statues and waited for them to do something. Their maws opened, causing a lot of shaking in the cavern. I stepped through their mouths and made my way into Tourian. I heard lots of screaming on the way down. Chozo survivors in trouble? I hoped not. I ransacked the Tourian base, destroying many parts of the mechanical arenas while avoiding the dry Space Pirate corpses after the Metroid breakout, and coming face to face with the Metroids themselves. My Arm Cannon nearly overheated taking down all the pests. Then, I stepped into the lair of Mother Brain. Stalks of sentient ore, Zebetite, was the life support of Mother Brain and its destruction stopped her from becoming too powerful. I was sealed into her chamber as I began attacking her glass case. The glass shattered, exposing the brain. It was ugly, with only an eye, spikes protruding from the brain's top and various wires and components hooking it to the floor. Its one eye was the weak point, so I fired a Super Missile straight into it. It closed in on itself and charged up a powerful energy blast that nearly hit me had I not jumped onto one of the turrets. After a long scuffle the brain exploded. Computer monitors flashed on the screen that there was 3 minutes to the explosion of the Tourian base. I quickly leapt up the nearby shaft while avoiding the explosions going off. Then I reached the Landing Site, bursting through a wall of the cave and jumping straight into my ship. I set the coordinates to get off the planet and then watched the explosion. Zebes wasn't destroyed, but Tourian was engulfed in a huge blast radius. I smiled in triumph and removed my Power Suit to take a breather. That proved to be a big mistake on my part. I saw numerous Space Pirate ships surrounding me. I escaped their attacks, but they shot me down from afar. I was flying back down to Zebes! I quickly escaped the ship before collision. The timing of my escape couldn't have been worse. I was attacked by Space Pirates and left nearly defenseless, stripped of my Power Suit. All I had for protection was my rather useless emergency pistol. Infiltrating the Space Pirate Mother Ship so armed may have been foolish, but I had no choice... Could I survive long enough to escape? Chapter 8: Ambush I slept that night alone in the dark, amid rocks of the ruins, with the mother ship in the background. When I woke up, I was wet from acid rain. The Zebes atmosphere was polluted by Tourian's destruction, and I made sure the Pirates would pay for it. Again, all I had for protection was a pretty much useless taser, that was holstered to my right leg. I took it out and ran off for the mother ship. I snuck in and smelled the disgusting scent of Pirates. Thankfully, the map station was just here. I could still use a map, by downloading it from my Paralyzer, which transferred the data into a component on my left hand. The next best thing was a Save Station. And these ones restored all my energy, but it couldn't restore the data components of my suit. However, my luck quickly ran out. The following room had a ledge, and underneath it I knew was a Pirate. Unless I had very sneaky maneuvers, I wasn't going to be undetected. I leapt down, and the alarms sounded. Alarm beacons sounded throughout the ship and some pathways were closed. The entire mother ship knew I was here. I was somewhat hurt from the Pirates' attacks, and some parts of the Zero Suit were torn. I kept moving, dodging alarm systems and shocking Pirates whenever necessary. However, their great power eventually forced me to flee into a location I knew. The Chozodia temple. In this temple, I had been trained and educated. I knew that there was a very special test here that would reward me with a Chozo suit even more advanced than ever before. I tried to make my way through to the chamber, but the journey was very difficult. I was cut and bleeding in several places, my hairband had come loose and so my hair was down, and the Zero Suit was probably not even a full Zero Suit anymore. The stomach area was completely torn off, one of the boots was gone and the other had a broken heel and toe. Regardless, I kept moving. Soon, I had found a chamber of areas that I had to crawl through because I had no Morph Ball, and I came out to find a Chozo Statue built in the image of Chac Mool on Earth. It seemed to be a special statue, but it held nothing. I kept moving through a tunnel and saw that a Pirate had stolen its upgrade, the Power Bombs! All my shots missed, but the upgrade would have been useless anyway. I decided I'd try to track it down later. The last chamber of Pirates was the toughest. There was a long shaft I had to run up, and blocks hanging off the ceiling forced me to crawl. The whole platform was composed of Bomb Blocks as I soon found, so I leapt to a safe ledge and fired the Paralyzer at them. Boom, they crumbled away, stopping the Pirates. I then found myself in a Save Room, blocking me off from the Pirates behind because the floor was made of Pit Blocks. The Save Room healed my cuts, but not the damage to the Zero Suit. I was almost to the chamber. Then, I found myself in it. Childhood memories came into my mind. Here I was, with Old Bird the Chozo, and Grey Voice. I was three, and below the emblem of a Chozo god was a familiar stone drawing. It was made by me when I was very young, and had me, Old Bird and Grey Voice together. My presence had awoken the Ruins Test. A spirit appeared and would occasionally create symbols that I would have to shoot with a fully charged Paralyzer shot. Shooting these was the key to passing the test. It had lightning bolt attacks, and its sphere depicted a mirror of me running around, jumping, etc. Shooting my image damaged me, so I was careful. I had passed the test, and there in front of me was the Power Suit. I let it powers materialize onto me. Chapter 9: Power My Power Suit, energy and all my upgrades were restored to me, so I no longer had to use that crappy pistol unless I lost the suit again (hopefully that wouldn't happen). The Power Suit was a shade of orange, the color of the Varia Suit. There was a difference to the appearance: the shoulders were much more bulky now, it was not as light, but I was still fairly acrobatic, and the lights and size of my chest plate were different. My Zero Suit was also, of course, fixed up as if it was never damaged. I noticed something else, as well. The three Unknown "dud" Items I had collected previously were now operational. The one I had collected in Crateria was the Plasma Beam; an ability that allowed my beam weapons to pierce through enemies and destroy them easily. The one I had collected in Kraid's Lair was the Space Jump, which, combined with my Screw Attack, would allow me to repeatedly jump and shred through enemies, making it a deadly weapon. The final one, collected in Ridley's Lair, was the Gravity Suit. Now, my suit would become purple and protect me from any zero-gravity environments and allow me to move normally, and also stop damage from lava. With my new power, I stormed the mother ship, leaving many dead Pirates in my wake. My job now was to set the self-destruct sequence for the ship, find an escape pod, and then have the Federation salvage my ship for repair. My map marked the location I needed to go. However, I wasn't on a deadline, so I returned to a glass tube I had seen earlier and wondered how to destroy it and get back into other regions of Zebes. After some more exploring, I came across the Power Bombs, and then escaped the mother ship temporarily. I returned to the regions of Zebes, including Tourian, to collect any left over Chozo items. In Tourian, the last three chambers were now destroyed, but the rest was surprisingly tact, and Mother Brain's chamber was now filled with a corrosive green battery acid that spilled out due to the explosion. Annoyingly, my Gravity Suit did not do anything. With my new power, I returned to the mother ship and seeked my target location, at the top of the flagship. It was in that chamber that I saw a synthetic version of Ridley approach. I was not scared, it was not the real Ridley, just a robot in his image. It had a weak point in the chest, which I used to my advantage in destroying it. The eye blackened out, and the head sank to the ground. Many Energy Capsules appeared for some reason, but whatever it was, I grabbed them all to prepare for the escape. Suddenly, the Ridley robot's eye began to flash red and beep, and a five minute self-destruct countdown started. I made my way back to the escape pod bay, destroying all Pirates that were trying to pursue. As I reached the bay, there were two very hardy black Space Pirates that took nearly all of my strength and energy to defeat. Their deaths opened the blast door to the escape pods. The one in the best shape was occupied. No problem. I leapt in and set it to escape. As it flew up toward the escape hatch, I was humored by a stupid and desperate Pirate, climbing the wall in front of me to try and stop my flight, but being crushed as he tried to jump onto my pod. As I escaped the mother ship, it quickly became red before it exploded. Mission Accomplished. I sent my report to Galactic Federation HQ, requested assistance in getting my ship's remains, and set off to take a break. Category:Blog posts